Blue Hawks test depth in girls lacrosse victory

EXETER — Ana Toomey has grown comfortable on attack, enough that she carved out some key playing time as a freshman during last year's run to the Division I semifinals.

RYAN O'LEARY

EXETER — Ana Toomey has grown comfortable on attack, enough that she carved out some key playing time as a freshman during last year's run to the Division I semifinals.

With a more inexperienced opponent in town on Friday, it was the perfect opportunity for coach Courtney Preneta to throw her promising sophomore a curveball.

With most of the seasoned leaders cheering from the sideline, Toomey was among the core group of freshmen and sophomores who led the Exeter High School girls lacrosse team. Setting the table from the midfield, Toomey finished with three goals and two assists in the Blue Hawks' 13-3 win over Manchester Central.

"I think this year we're trying to grow more as a team and bring those young players up, really make them part of the team," Toomey said. "I think this game really helped us with that."

The Hawks (1-1), also featuring freshmen Shannon Bucklin and Lauren Arkell in the midfield, scored the game's first seven goals and led 11-2 at halftime. Bucklin finished with two goals and Arkell chipped in a goal and an assist.

"I'm happy with what they did," Preneta said. "I thought we took care of the ball and we controlled the game."

Central (0-2) got two goals from Sarah Thompson in defeat.

The game doubled as Exeter's Division I opener following last Tuesday's 12-10 loss to out-of-state power Acton-Boxborough (Mass.) at Eustis Field.

It was a great chance for Exeter to test its depth, and the Blue Hawks largely passed.

"I think we're just trying to get everything that we've been working on in practice solidified and just get the basics down," Exeter senior Erin McKenna said. "We haven't really integrated too many plays. We're kind of just trying to get the team familiar with everybody and get everyone circulating through, so everyone's comfortable when they have their opportunity."

Toomey looked plenty comfortable playing in the middle.

She scored the game's first goal off an assist from Lauren Arkell just 19 seconds into the game. Later in the half, she had a hand in four consecutive Exeter goals, scoring on a free position shot to make it 7-0 and later assisting on goals scored by Lauren Arkell and Bucklin.

"I usually play low attack, so it was different," Toomey said, "but I like the change. It was fun."

"I've seen her play in the summer, and she plays a lot older than she is," Preneta said of Toomey. "She played like that as a freshman, which is kind of unusual. She's a smart player."

Kim Arkell, Exeter's senior staple in that midfield spot, logged a few minutes early and scored on a fast break to make it 2-0. From there, the Hawks got goals from Vogt, junior Jenna Henningsen and sophomore Morgan Willett to lead 5-0 in under five minutes.

Exeter's lead swelled to 9-1 before Central scored with 3:34 remaining in the half. The Hawks closed with two goals in the final minute, getting tallies from Goodwin and Vogt, to lead by nine at halftime.

"Staying positive the whole time," Toomey said of her top takeaway from the game. "Even though we let in a few goals — that usually would get us down, we'd kind of keep our heads down — but I think we kind of got past that mental block and pushed through."

The Blue Hawks called off the dogs in the second half. Thompson scored for Central and both Bucklin and Goodwin scored for Exeter to cap the scoring. With a 10-goal spread, much of the half was running time, making for a quick day at the office.

Exeter junior Kristina Keith had an assist in the first half along with McKenna. Junior Emma Jacobs picked up the win as the goaltender.

"You always have different levels of competition, but coach always tells us that we need to go into every game with the same intensity," McKenna said. "When we play down — that's worse than if were to lose a really hard game. She just wants us to play through and through no matter who our competition is."

The competition took a spike with Monday's road game at Souhegan. The Hawks also travel to Nashua North today.

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